by Bob Velin, USA TODAY Sports

by Bob Velin, USA TODAY Sports

A year ago, Daniel Jacobs, once the "Golden Child" of boxing and now "The Miracle Man" who has survived cancer and is in the midst of a comeback for the ages, was asked where he saw himself a year down the road.

Jacobs said he wanted to be a world champion and the face of Livestrong, the organization created by Lance Armstrong to support people affected by cancer.

Jacobs, 27, can accomplish the first part on Saturday night when he fights Australian Jarrod Fletcher for the vacant WBA middleweight title (Showtime, 9 p.m. ET).

Making the story even better, Jacobs will get his long-awaited opportunity in his hometown of Brooklyn, at the Barclays Center, where he began his comeback from cancer two years ago.

He is fighting on a tripleheader card that includes undefeated, unified light welterweight champion Danny Garcia against Rod Salka in a 10-round, welterweight non-title bout, and IBF light welterweight champion Lamont Peterson against Edgar Santana for Peterson's title.

The Livestrong wish has yet to come to fruition for Jacobs, but either way, he wants to "be an advocate for the face of cancer."

With every passing day, new chapters in the Book of Daniel Jacobs are being written.

Jacobs, on the comeback trail from the only loss of his career â?? a knockout loss to Dmitry Pirog more than four years ago -- was diagnosed with Osteosarcoma, a life-threatening form of bone cancer that left him partially paralyzed with a softball-sized tumor that was wrapped around his spine. Doctors told him he would never walk, let alone box again. But Jacobs is a fighter and so he fought.

Beating cancer is one thing. Beating cancer and returning to the sport his loves is quite another. Jacobs has surprised himself by accomplishing both.

"I kind of see my life more like a movie now, where I can just sit back and see what unfolds," he told USA TODAY Sports by phone. "I never thought I would be at this point. Once I got the news I would be able to box again, it was very exciting, but it has surpassed my expectations for what I thought I could accomplish or will accomplish."

He knows he has been a great inspiration to anyone who has ever battled cancer. He embraces his role.

"For what I've overcome and am still overcoming, and accomplishing, says a lot," Jacobs says. "To not only be a cancer survivor, but to return to the sport of boxing, because, I mean, this is not basketball, this is not baseball, this is not a sport you play. This is a sport where you can die in the ring. So it says a lot to me to come back and be a world champion in that aspect.

"I do want to get my message across the world, and I do want to be an advocate for (beating cancer), so after I hopefully become the first cancer-surviving world champion, we'll see what unfolds."

His message has resonated globally, and even reached Deepak Chopra, the doctor, philosopher and author who Time Magazine hailed as "the poet-prophet of alternative medicine." Chopra recently sent two of his books to Jacobs.

"His whole outlook on life, his meditation, he taught me so much about being able to control my mind and doing so much for myself," Jacobs says of Chopra. "When I was in Australia earlier this year, I met a woman who worked with the organization that does his books. They got in contact and told him my story. So he very much knows of me. And when his books came in the mail, I was just so shocked and so surprised. Best gift I got in a while."

While the cancer is gone from his body, it remains in Jacobs' mind constantly.

"It's on my mind almost every day," he says. "Even though I was a victim, I look at myself as almost a super hero and it's like a movie. I never thought my life would take this course, I never thought I would get these opportunities. I commend myself, I kind of pat myself on the back because I never thought I could get through this. . . . and I'm very proud of that."

Jacobs (27-1, 24 KOs) views Fletcher (18-1, 10 KOs) as a logical step up in competition. He has not really been tested since his loss to Pirog in 2010, winning all seven of his fights by KO. But he's ready to make his move.

"I never take anything away from my opponents, but I feel like with the training methods I have, I feel like I'm so headstrong right now that I don't feel there's a way my opponent can beat me," he says. "I never say I'm going to go in there and beat this guy or that guy, but I do not see a way in which I can be beaten that night.

"It's my mind-set. I'm willing to die in there -- not physically, like if a doctor said you're going to die in there I'd say no, take me out -- but I've come to this point where I've trained all my life for this and I'm so ready I feel like this fight has the opportunity to "steal the show.' "

A win Saturday could put Jacobs in line for by far the biggest challenge of his boxing career, a unification bout against undefeated champion Peter "Kid Chocolate" Quillin, another Brooklyn product who is 31-0 with 22 KOs.

Jacobs wanted Quillin after his last fight, but realizes that Fletcher was probably the right opponent at the right time.

"I feel like the story just keeps getting better and better and better," Jacobs says. "The opportunities that I've been allowed to have just keep getting better. I would have never thought this could be possible at one point, like at the time I had my loss. So to get this opportunity is better than any I've ever had. So I really feel like I'm in a blessed and in a fortunate situation, to have access to all the champions (in the middleweight division)."

Jacobs recalls reading about the Barclays Center opening up while he was recovering in the hospital, never dreaming he might one day be fighting for a world title there.

"I only dreamed that I could one day fight again, and be at the inaugural show for the Barclays. That was it," he says. "I only wanted to get back to the sport I love.

"To have this opportunity is really mind-blowing. I get chills thinking about it all the time."